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Darren Collison gets 20 assists!

And we passed on this guy because? Oh yeah, were were set at point guard with Ford and Diener at PG. I don't want to hear about Price either. He will never see 20 assists in one game. Our scouting department really messed up with this one.

Re: Darren Collison gets 20 assists!

Noone really thought collison would be this good, you cant just point at every good player picked waay after ours and yell at our scouts or bird for it without criticizing all the other teams as well. If anything the blunder was logically not taking ty lawson, who would not have been a reach. We also got a solid point way late in the second round.

Re: Darren Collison gets 20 assists!

“Darren Collison. 16 points. They have him with 20 assists tonight… And this is a Hornet’s rookie record of 20 assists. I’m going to say this politely. They need to watch the video of this game because Darren Collison has about 13 assists in the game, not 20. The person keeping assists tonight is a little unclear on the rule. You’ve had balls thrown in and then guys making moves then scoring and still an assist will be credited. That’s up for the league to look at, eventually.”

This was a quote by Bob Fitzgerald towards the end of the Hornets victory over the Warriors Monday night. Bob Fitzgerald is the Warriors play-by-play man. When I was watching the game and saw the stat, it didn’t really seem correct to me either. I guessed that Collison might have around 15 assists. To hear 20 was sort of alarming.

We’ve heard about issues in the past with Nick Van Exel in Denver or what’s been assumed with Chris Paul in New Orleans in terms of his stats being inflated for the hopes of ending up on SportsCenter because of pretty round numbers. Well, 20 assists for someone that the Hornets are desperately hoping takes away some Rookie of the Year recognition from Tyreke Evans with his half of a season’s worth of brilliance is quite the round number to make people notice.
Since Fitz wanted someone to check out the video tape and see if 20 was a legit number for Collison tonight, I decided to cue up the old League Pass Broadband and go over each registered assist for Collison.

Re: Darren Collison gets 20 assists!

nice conspiracy theory up there.

I don't care how he got it, 20 assits or even 15. Still impressive for a rookie that we missed on. It just kind of gets to me that everyone knew before the draft that we needed a PG. This nonsense about how "nobody thought Collison was going be that good" is crap. New Orleans did their homework and drafted him. Our scouting department should have been more thorough.

Re: Darren Collison gets 20 assists!

so if he played for the current Pacers team, in the type of offense they play, with the current crop of players, 20 assists = 8 or 9 maybe?

yea...and he would have had TJ and Earl to mentor him instead of Chris Paul..which means he probably wouldn't have learned the mental aspect of being a point guard..which means he'd be chucking and turning the ball over.

Re: Darren Collison gets 20 assists!

I don't care how he got it, 20 assits or even 15. Still impressive for a rookie that we missed on.

I don't think Collison would have been the same player here that he has been with the Hornets. I think playing behind Paul has helped tremendously, and I think playing in a system built around Paul has helped as well.

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Re: Darren Collison gets 20 assists!

Yeah I am not really that impressed with the Hornets roster, I think most of the credit goes to Collison. I am totally willing to give up our pick this year if we could get ahold of him somehow.

Blaming bird for passing is silly, nobody thought he would be this good, and almost every team passed on him. Our front office was no more inept than every other front office in the league, its a faulty argument.

"As a bearded man, i was very disappointed in Love. I am gathering other bearded men to discuss the status of Kevin Love's beard. I am motioning that it must be shaved."

Re: Darren Collison gets 20 assists!

Yeah I am not really that impressed with the Hornets roster, I think most of the credit goes to Collison. I am totally willing to give up our pick this year if we could get ahold of him somehow.

Blaming bird for passing is silly, nobody thought he would be this good, and almost every team passed on him. Our front office was no more inept than every other front office in the league, its a faulty argument.

Dont forget about marcus thornton either. scoring machine.

"To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift." - Steve Prefontaine

Re: Darren Collison gets 20 assists!

Is he still rocking that 2:1 assist to turnover ratio (just slightly worse than our own Earl Watson and not too much better than T.J. Ford)? I still can't believe they scored so many points on the Warriors.

I'll admit, I'm not watching his games, but the stats aren't that great if you consider TOs too.

Re: Darren Collison gets 20 assists!

Wow! I should be a GM - amazingly, I'm able to find a better player later than the Pacers pick EVERY SINGLE YEAR! Obviously, I'm a better evaluater of talent than Donnie Walsh, Larry Bird and the Pacer scout team combined - the evidence speaks for itself, right?

...or then again, maybe the draft isn't that easy? Maybe no matter how good your scout team is, maybe it is hard to make the perfect pick every time? Let me see...

Hmm...the Phoenix Suns drafted Casey Jacobsen in 2002 at #22 instead of Prince.
Then in 2003, they took Zarko Cabarka over David West and Josh Howard. Why would a perennial playoff team make such an obvious gaff?

Hmm...then the Suns took Jackson Vroman over Ariza in 2004. Surely the Suns are still suffering from their fateful draft failures...I'll have to check their win/loss numbers tomorrow, but I'm sure their season must be in the crapper.

Thank goodness East powerhouse Orlando took Fran Vazquez at #11 instead of Danny Granger. Who else went before Granger? Yaraslav Korolev...Sean May...Rashad McCants...Antoine Wright....Joey Graham....I guess we can't take credit for the Granger pick - he just fell in our laps. We HAD to take him, right? The Pacers must have just got lucky...

Ah...2006. The year of Shawn Williams. A man of unlimited potential...and as it turned out...unlimited stupidity. Well, we probably could have taken a flyer on Rondo at 21. Or we could have taken Olexsiy Pecherov, Quincy Douby, Marcus Williams, Maurice Ager, Mardy Collins, or Joel Freeland. I mean, hey, why swing for the fences with a pick like Shawn Williams, when you could play it safe and draft Josh Boone?

If only we picked in 2007 - we could have had Greg Oden at #1, right? He is a lead pipe lock at #1. Our fellow cellar-dwellars, the Suns, took Alando Tucker over Carl Landry, Marc Gasol and Ramon Sessions.

And so on...

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go make an offering of KFC chicken wings to my Sam Bowie shrine. I like Bowie very much, but he no help with curve ball.

Re: Darren Collison gets 20 assists!

so if he played for the current Pacers team, in the type of offense they play, with the current crop of players, 20 assists = 8 or 9 maybe?

Here he would be lucky not to be benched for not taking the first available quality shot often enough and not dribble penetrating as much as he could be to "space the court", with the statistical evidence being the high number of assists.

Re: Darren Collison gets 20 assists!

Wow! I should be a GM - amazingly, I'm able to find a better player later than the Pacers pick EVERY SINGLE YEAR! Obviously, I'm a better evaluater of talent than Donnie Walsh, Larry Bird and the Pacer scout team combined - the evidence speaks for itself, right?

...or then again, maybe the draft isn't that easy? Maybe no matter how good your scout team is, maybe it is hard to make the perfect pick every time? Let me see...

Hmm...the Phoenix Suns drafted Casey Jacobsen in 2002 at #22 instead of Prince.
Then in 2003, they took Zarko Cabarka over David West and Josh Howard. Why would a perennial playoff team make such an obvious gaff?

Hmm...then the Suns took Jackson Vroman over Ariza in 2004. Surely the Suns are still suffering from their fateful draft failures...I'll have to check their win/loss numbers tomorrow, but I'm sure their season must be in the crapper.

Thank goodness East powerhouse Orlando took Fran Vazquez at #11 instead of Danny Granger. Who else went before Granger? Yaraslav Korolev...Sean May...Rashad McCants...Antoine Wright....Joey Graham....I guess we can't take credit for the Granger pick - he just fell in our laps. We HAD to take him, right? The Pacers must have just got lucky...

Ah...2006. The year of Shawn Williams. A man of unlimited potential...and as it turned out...unlimited stupidity. Well, we probably could have taken a flyer on Rondo at 21. Or we could have taken Olexsiy Pecherov, Quincy Douby, Marcus Williams, Maurice Ager, Mardy Collins, or Joel Freeland. I mean, hey, why swing for the fences with a pick like Shawn Williams, when you could play it safe and draft Josh Boone?

If only we picked in 2007 - we could have had Greg Oden at #1, right? He is a lead pipe lock at #1. Our fellow cellar-dwellars, the Suns, took Alando Tucker over Carl Landry, Marc Gasol and Ramon Sessions.

And so on...

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go make an offering of KFC chicken wings to my Sam Bowie shrine. I like Bowie very much, but he no help with curve ball.

Re: Darren Collison gets 20 assists!

Couple of things, I'd say Charlotte has better finishers and a system condusive to the PG getting a bunch of assists. The Pacers have decent/streaky scorers, average at best finishers (I'd say way below actually), and a system completely devoid almost of PG assist opportunities.

I'm not knocking Collision, just saying he'd never put those numbers up on this Pacers team, I'm not sure any PG could.

Re: Darren Collison gets 20 assists!

It sucks seeing Collison playing so well and knowing we passed on him. The thing is you look at where Collison is developing and then look at the Pacers team environment and it is like night and day. With the Hornets Collison gets to learn from the best point guard in the league.

Here at the Pacers he would have learned from a me first player like TJ and a solid role player like Watson.

The environment the player is developing in has a lot to do with their overall development as a player. So I am not going to sit here and rake Bird over the fire with passing on Collison.

Re: Darren Collison gets 20 assists!

Couple of things, I'd say Charlotte has better finishers and a system condusive to the PG getting a bunch of assists. The Pacers have decent/streaky scorers, average at best finishers (I'd say way below actually), and a system completely devoid almost of PG assist opportunities.

I'm not knocking Collision, just saying he'd never put those numbers up on this Pacers team, I'm not sure any PG could.

Not to mention, the kid would only get 15 mpg during the month of january, then be told that he "locked up a spot in the team's future, so there is no need to play him much more during the rest of the season."

Re: Darren Collison gets 20 assists!

Couple of things, I'd say Charlotte has better finishers and a system condusive to the PG getting a bunch of assists. The Pacers have decent/streaky scorers, average at best finishers (I'd say way below actually), and a system completely devoid almost of PG assist opportunities.

I'm not knocking Collision, just saying he'd never put those numbers up on this Pacers team, I'm not sure any PG could.

Re: Darren Collison gets 20 assists!

Thank you all -

the simple fact is this, if the Pacers had drafted each of the players I mentioned above over our original choice - they *still* wouldn't be contenders, and may barely be a playoff team. So to harp over missed opportunities is pointless and just depressing in general.

Playoff dreams are born with top 5 draft picks, and even then you have to keep your fingers crossed.

Re: Darren Collison gets 20 assists!

We could offer every great/good asset we have and they still would not trade us CP3. Not never.

wrong.

The Hornets should trade paul because of how good collison is. trade him for an up and comer along with a draft pick, and right there you have the makings of a very young talented team. Not to mention that they save tons of money by not having to pay cp3 a max contract.